SPoW June 16, 2017
01The protoplanetary Boomerang Nebula, located 5,000 light-years from Earth, holds the record for coldest known object in the Universe. Outflows of gas, streaming out from the central dying star, reach temperatures below -270 degrees Celsius. In this image, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured the elongated nebula, while the Hubble telescope captured the purple glow in the background.
02In this region of star formation, around 400 light-years away, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found methyl isocyanate, one of the prebiotic molecules that our solar system evolved from. Scientists found the chemical in the dust and gas surrounding young stars; astronomers hope to use the discovery to learn more about life’s origins on Earth. The insert shows methyl isocyanate’s molecular structure.
03In this image, taken by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST), see the Omega Nebula (left), Eagle Nebula (center), and Sharpless 2-54 (right). Within the three dust clouds, located 7,000 light-years away from Earth, many stars are born.
04On Flag Day (June 14), NASA astronaut Jack Fischer snapped this photo of an American flag laid against the dome-shaped cupola window of the International Space Station.
05This GIF shows the varying distances between two brown dwarfs, consisting of 12 images made over three years with the Hubble telescope. The dwarfs, which are only six light-years away from Earth, orbit each other at three times the distance between the sun and Earth.
06This photo, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows methane clouds, dark hydrocarbon lakes and seas around the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. Because it’s now summer on the planet, most of Titan’s northern latitudes are lit up by the sun.
